Review: And She Was Loved by Black Rose Theatre
by Mark Briody
Zell Miller III's And She Was Loved - A Choreo--poem -- If you've had a parent you revered, this show is for you.
Sitting in a sandwich shop poking at one letter at a time to write this, I tell you: this the show worked on so many levels. It put Austin's poet Laureate into a version of Peter Pan's Neverland. Not one where he wanted to stay young forever, but where the death of his mother and his "other mother" Laurie Carlos blocked him from living. His sister G. was equally desolate and accompanied him like Tinkerbell, except that she communicated not with a tiny bell but by tap dance. Zell's daughter Marley hovered behind them like Peter Pan's shadow. Apparently Mom was always clocked in to NEVER NEVER; the rest of the family pushed sliders marking themselves as IN or OUT upon entering or leaving.
Characteristic of surviving family members was a stressed move accentuated by a gust of exhaled breath. I've seen it before in Zell's work, particularly his Raisin at the Vortex. Afterward ,Zell reminded me that Laurie Carlos directed that show.
Early in this production, he was rapping or performing slam poetry about current politics. His energy and fluency at this form gave poignancy to Zell's effort to work his way out of his eerie Neverland. Slowly, painfully, he was putting words together, trying to regain his usual slam style, both to re-arm himself with words (his weapon/not-weapon) and to return to his former self.
I'm leaving a lot of the middle of course of this. There was a lot, so much that those who didn't know his work and style might have been confused. But there were passages of real, profound emotion on that stage, releases of pain and moments of catharsis.
What really resonated for me was his rant on speaking about the end of life. No euphemisms. A person is dead, hasn't passed on, isn't in heaven, or anything else. Since my own mother died in 2018, I've been using has joined the ancestors.
Zell put in plenty of Easter eggs and sly references. I particularly liked his nods to Langston Hughes, who would reject his work because of swear words . And Austin's Indigenous Offspring, the title of Zell's 2026 book of poetry, is a delightful evocation of James Baldwin's essay collection, Notes of a Native Son.
By the end, I'd laughed, cried, laugh/cried, and wept. While he got his voice back, I felt like singing. My own art of choral harmony is used to perform songs that make the audience feel the emotion. Zell offered me a needed spark.
And She Was Loved
by Zell Miller III
Black Rose Theatre
Thursdays-Saturdays,
September 03 - September 12, 2026
September 03 - September 12, 2026
September 3 - 12, 2026
Hyde Park Theatre, 511 W. 43rd Street at Guadaupe
